Through reinforcing feedback loops, a system effectively causes its own behavior, ending up in a virtuous or vicious cycle depending on whether the behavior is desirable. Over time, this can lead to exponential improvements or total system collapse (usually by pushing a stock past the point of no return).
Unfortunately, loops are hard to spot from the inside, because any single arc looks like plain cause and effect. Seeing the loop means inspecting the system and tracing a consequence back around to its own cause, which is why you have to think in second-order terms to notice one at all.
All of this makes a vicious cycle a tempting target for brute force. Resist that. Since systems strive for self-preservation, the loop will treat you as a foreign body, and swimming downstream (i.e., redirecting the loop’s own momentum) beats trying to break it from the outside.